Vivek Express: ऊंचे नीचे रास्ते और मंज़िल तेरी दूर.

Till date nothing concrete has happened and decision to procure a huge fleet of 66 ac local trains costing Rs. a few 1000 crores has been taken. Following essential steps still not taken/cleared:
* Design features of the ac local train
* Fares of AC local train
* Technical/practical feasibility of automatic closing door of AC train
*...
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Commercial operation of a pilot ac local train
* Experience of Passenger response to ac local train (depend on fare, frequency and successful operation of ac trains)
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AC bus services of BEST have recently been withdrawn due to poor response and losses incurred. Same fate may await the AC local train, if proper studies are not made prior to take decision of procuring a fleet of 66 ac local trains.

AC buses might have been withdraws due to multiple reasons, but AC local will become a reality soon in Mumbai. Even with shorter distance of 11 km, AC metro is already a hit. there is no reason why AC local should not be a success. The only thing to watch out for is that the frequency should be sufficient and the fare should be reasonable. on top of it, TTE needs to remain inside the coaches all the time since people with no tickets or people with second class tickets will leave no opportunity to try to travel in AC locals causing inconvenience to genuine ticket holder.
Also the price should be at par with first class ticket since the first class...
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ticket holder doesn't get any extra facility than a normal second class pax. This will guarantee the success of AC locals in mumbai